Jan
5
Some items to get the week started:
- I am the Future of Journalism contest. Publish2′s contest (deadline was end of December) has produced some wonderful entries from smart young journalists. I haven’t seem them all, but I’m working on it.
- Star series shines light on government travel spending. How the Toronto Star used website scraping, databases and good, old-fashioned curiosity to dig deep into Canadian government spending. Related: Deep Throat Meets Data Mining, which is a deepish look at “computational reporting.”
- Lee Enterprises: A poster child for the ownership crisis. You should read Steve Yelvington’s post for a couple of reasons. One is that it’s a nice, crisp look at why newspaper companies are in such serious financial trouble. Another is that reminds use newspapers still make scads of money.
- Hyperlocal Websites will Boom in 2009 as Community Newspapers Fold. I’m not sure I agree with the premise that scads of community newspapers will fold and be replaced by websites this year. Interesting piece, nonetheless.
- The shape of things to come. Clay Shirky’s predictions for newspapers, magazines and TV, (which I find less interesting) for the coming year. Somewhat related: To Prepare for the Future, Skip the Present, a piece by Edward Roussel at the increasingly valuable Nieman Reports, in which he suggests newspapers stop the fight to save print. Intriguing. Also related: Online Or Bust: Why 2009 May Be The Nail In Newspapers’ Coffins and Dailies go Darwin.
- SkyGrid To Offer Free Version Of Real Time News Service. Future Of News Aggregation? Do I need yet another aggregator to expose me to the constant flow of news and information? Perhaps.
- Resolutions for journalism students, part II: Network like mad. Part II of Suzanne Yada’s essential posts that are for more than just journalism students.
- There are no jobs for photojournalists who can only take pictures. I pointed to NPAC*APPC article that contained that statement, from the photo editor of the Globe & Mail, and predicted there would be some discussion coming in the site’s forums. Here it is.
- Cutting the cords, bridging the gaps. Zac Echola, with a long, thoughtful post that newspaper executives need to read and ponder.
Our local CNHI newspaper decided to close down their public forums (they said it was their ethical responsibility…) Might be one of the bigger mistakes they’ve made as my traffic is going up, up, up! Not only that, people are becoming involved. You can check the site night or day and there are 5 to 30 users and 20 to 50 guests on at any one time.
http://www.andersonfreepress.net